Lane Jennings

Long a writer and editor at the World Future Society, publishers of The Futurist magazine, I retired not long ago as Managing Editor of the scholarly journal World Future Review.

I grew up in and near Chicago,attended Williams College, spent a year in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, earned my MA and PhD from Harvard University. I have also worked teaching English in Hong Kong, writing scripts and doing voice-overs for documentary television, and serving as an escort-interpreter for the U.S. Department of State.

Since the late 1970’s I have lived with my wife, Cheryl, in Columbia, Maryland.

(For more details, see the ABOUT LANE page on this site.)

These are some of my publications:

Satisfaction: a novel (2016)

Love knows no boundaries of time and space. What happened anciently in far-off lands occurs again on a small college campus in the 1960s. This time his name is Allan, hers is Ann, and their story—ever new yet achingly familiar—once again depicts creation against chaos. Does Allan love a girl, or just a dream? Is Ann the victim of a family at war, or something truly new: a female free to rule herself? Will reason, patience, and progressive jazz prove powerless before the raw reality of passion? Or can convention and rebellion merge to end in total satisfaction?

Trade Paperback: 978-1-5144-8940-6 $19.95

E-Book: 978-1-5144-8939-0 $3.99

Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Xlibris, etc.

LINEAGE: Poems and Prose of Three Generations (2012)

Meet the Jennings family: three generations—grandfather, father, and son—all of them writers. Here are examples of their work in verse and prose spanning nearly a hundred years, from the early 1900’s to the start of the 21st Century. Their differences and similarities, their interests and concerns, their hopes and dreams reveal much about the different Americas they were each born into and the different worlds they encountered, imagined, and described. This unique anthology traces the evolution of writing talent in one family across a century of change backgrounds—from the farmlands of Ohio, to the closing of the Western frontier, and from contemporary faith and science to speculative visions of alternative tomorrows and infinity itself.

ISBN: 978-1-4691-9975-7

Trade Paperback: $14.95

Available directly from the author or through dealers via B&N, Amazon, etc.

FABRICATIONS: New and Selected Poems (1998)

FABRICATIONS offers selected poems that represent 30 years of writing—from the early 1960s to the mid-1990s. Here you will find themes and treatments typical of a young man’s life experiences [high school (“Graduation Night”), early love (“Angela”), encounters overseas (“Athens After Dark,” “Berlin Assignment”) etc.], but also tributes and memorials (“Ex-Scholar Gone to War,” “One for Bill”), invocations to the powers of creation (“Music”), and even a practical piece of low-yield consumer magic (“Charm for Locating a Parking Space Downtown”).

Lane Jennings may have been born into an America at very peak of its pride and confidence (“Early Years”), but he is also a poet who revers the classic past (“Retired Hero,” “Hector’s Victory”) and speculates on worlds that might emerge in years to come (“Fabrications”). You’ll find here humor, too; some of it pointed (“To His Cool Mistress,” “The Penguin’s Ball”), and some of it delightful nonsense (“When Superman Grows Old,” “Chicago Piano”).

All in all, FABRICATIONS offers a smorgasbord of verse to comfort, teach, and entertain—a sampler from the vast range of lyric possibilities.

Trade Paperback: ISBN: 0-938872-26-5 $9.95

Available directly from the author or through dealers via B&N, Amazon, etc.

VIRTUAL FUTURES: Wordviews of Alternative Tomorrows (1996)

This is a book of dreams, and doubts, and possibilities. The contents are not offered as predictions, promises, or early warnings. Rather, these brief glimpses into possible tomorrows in the form of poems (or “wordviews” if you prefer) aspire to quickly set the scene without lulling readers into a state of suspended disbelief. Instead of a future populated by superheroes and crises to match, we invite you to visualize yourself exactly as you are today immersed in a world of different opportunities and dangers. Comments and questions appended to each poem are intended to help guide readers beyond the limits of words on a page to an exploration of their own future concerns and priorities.

First published 20 years ago, VF breaks down the future into four distinct “eras”: Preparations (1970 to the mid-1990s) largely of interest for the differences between what appeared probable in the years leading up to the end of the 20th century and what we now know in fact occurred; Prospects (1999-2025) the “extended present” we exist in, and for which the changes taking place have already begun; Evolutions (2025-2150) the “near future” we can expect our children and our grandchildren to see; and Speculations (2150 and Beyond) “the far future” about which we can only guess and hope with very little certainty.

If ”virtual reality” is defined as “an interactive experience that incorporates a sense of being somewhere”* Virtual Futures is a book that puts you, the reader, into novel situations and invites you to decide what happens next based on your personal goals and values. A unique reading experience.

*From an article by Ben Delaney, publisher of CyberEdge Journal

Trade Paperback (Signed edition, limited to 300 copies) $29.95

Available directly from the author or through dealers via B&N, Amazon, etc.

A Note to Readers:

I’m still at work designing and setting up this site, so for now, if you have any comments or questions and want to reach me directly, send an e-mail to <lanejen@aol.com>

Clicking on any of the six buttons to your right at the bottom of this page will take you to pages describing each of my books in more detail, and to a page with more background on my life. As yet I don’t know how to properly label these keys, so it’s choose and discover for yourself. Happy hunting! –Lane :-)>